Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones have slammed the Government’s decision to close the Centrelink and Medicare Offices at Warrawong. The decision to close the office has been made without consultation with the local community and is a slap in the face to local residents who campaigned for years to get a Medicare office located in the area.
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Local Federal and State Labor representatives today met with ItSoWel Executive Officer, Giovanna Cardamone, to make a joint personal donation of $1,000 towards The Seasons of my Life Through Italian Eyes – An Interactive Sensory Cultural Resource and launch ItSoWel’s fundraising drive for the project.
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Illawarra Federal Labor, today, met with South Coast Labour Council representatives to discuss ways that workers and small businesses can get a better deal across the region.
We believe it is more important to see workers get a pay rise than Australia’s biggest companies receive an $65 billion tax cut.
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E&OE TRANSCRIPTDOORSTOP - WOLLONGONG MONDAY, 30 APRIL 2018
SUBJECTS: Illawarra families worse off under the Turnbull Government’s child care changes, the importance of early childhood education, Gonski, educators worry about child care changes
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT, AMANDA RISHWORTH MP: Today we have heard the government talk a lot about education but their actions in early education do not back up their rhetoric. What we know when it comes to early education is that the government’s new child care package coming in on the 2nd of July will leave one in five families in the Illawarra worse off. That means they will get less access to early education services and less access to high quality early learning. We know that a majority of these families will be in the two lowest income brackets. We will actually have lower income families being worse off as a result of the government’s changes.
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Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Development, Amanda Rishworth has joined Member for Whitlam, Stephen Jones and Member for Cunningham, Sharon Bird to talk to families in the Illawarra about the changes to the child care system.
There are 2984 families in the Illawarra who will be worse off from July 2 under the Turnbull Government’s unfair child care package.
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Infrastructure Australia has, today, called for faster rail services from Wollongong to Sydney as part of its new Infrastructure Priority List.
Labor MPs, Stephen Jones and Sharon Bird, said the report highlighted the critical need to improve rail services between Wollongong and Sydney. The report listed line upgrades and cutting commuter travel time as a priority which would transform the Illawarra region; and support regional development and population pressures on Sydney.
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Surgeries will be delayed, nurse and doctor numbers will decline and emergency department wait times will increase in the Illawarra, with the Turnbull Government cutting $11.5 million from the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District from 2017-2020.
Malcolm Turnbull is cutting $715 million out of Australia’s public hospitals between 2017- 2020, with the $11.5 million cut from Cunningham, Whitlam and Gilmore equivalent to 17,267 emergency department visits, 32 nurses, 1,908 births or 442 knee replacements.
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Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones were completely baffled by the Prime Minister’s third visit to the Illawarra since late last year with the Prime Minister, again, not making any sort of funding announcement for our region or addressing serious anti-dumping concerns.
In yet another bizarrely managed press conference, the Prime Minister interviewed Bisalloy representatives himself with leading questions about the Liberal’s big business tax cut and essentially claiming credit for increases in production at Bisalloy Steel.
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